Locks
by elusive-violet-irises
Summary: Short story about Émilie from the Lunar Chronicles. It will be divided in two parts. Émilie was only trying to visit her Scarling- why did the forest have to be so dense? She finds herself having to get herself out of a rather nasty predicament without the help of her more heroic acquaintances...
1. Travel

"She ran here and she ran there, and went so far, at last, that she found herself in a lonely place, where she saw a snug little house, in which three bears lived."

Émilie leaned into the wind, her golden curls flying in all directions and the air playing across her face as she ran through the deep green forest of France towards Scarlet's farm near Rieux. She could've walked, but, well… she was not as calm and patient as she liked to pretend to be. Though Émilie loved visiting her friend Scarlet, the peregrination was not exactly her favorite part.

She turned towards the path curving off as far as she could see. Émilie didn't know these parts very well, but she thought she could see a field of pretty flowers up ahead. She sighed and slowed down enough to pull her hair into a bun so it didn't cloud her vision, then continued towards her Scarling with a basket around her arm to hold the potatoes, beets, lettuce, and onions (tomatoes had recently become off-limits, since Scarlet had married Wolf, the boy who Émilie had once liked, thinking that he was a street fighter, but had turned out to be Lunar, part of a creepy wolf pack, and very in love with Scarlet. It was a long, complicated story.).

Reaching the flowers, Émilie stopped and wandered into the patch of flowers she had seen. Maybe she could bring some to her friend as an apology for the last time Gilles had tried to short change her (which was more often than anyone but Scar would admit). These deliveries had been a way both to get Émilie a promotion after a solid year of waitressing and to ensure Scarlet got her proper payment. The flowers could even be sold at one of the markets and restaurants who bought from the esteemed Benoit Farms and Gardens.

Hesitant, Émilie considered how much time it would take to just gather a few blossoms and continue on her way. As she vacillated, the field shone invitingly. The dappled sunlight was a beacon among the dark, covered woods. Émilie sprinted into the field with near glee.

Émilie waded deeper and deeper into the flowers, each time a flower catching her eye only a little farther away. Before she knew it, she had somehow wound her way to the center of the field. It suddenly occurred to her that she might not be able to find her way back. She frantically looked behind her, but realized that there were two parallel paths on either side of the clearing, and then forest everywhere else. Émilie had no idea where she had come from.

In her panic, she reasoned that it was actually quite simple. She just had to follow her trampled footsteps in the flowers back to the trail. However, a quick glance back confirmed that her winding path would take an absurdly long time to trace, with a good chance she would lose it anyway. Stupid springy flowers. Émilie resolved to just pick a direction and see where it took her. The last option would be to wait for someone to find her, but this place was so secluded that it could take ages. There was no way Scar would wait that long, best friend or no.

Émilie picked the path on her right on a whim. Gathering up her bouquet into the basket, she was ready to go.

It felt like she had been walking for hours. On second thought, it probably had been hours. Two, at least. This didn't look at all like it had the first time she had walked here. Émilie was ready to turn back when she spotted something in the distance.

It was a house! It certainly wasn't Scarlet's house, but Émilie had only arrived this way once, the rest of the visits being by hover, so maybe it was just some random corner of the farm she hadn't seen before. It looked like some sort of hay barn, but it had just enough furnishings to seem like someone could be inside.

Émilie walked up onto the wide, seemingly neglected porch and knocked on the door. "Hello?" she called, hoping that someone would be there. "Scarlet? Wolf? It's Ém! Can you hear me?"

When she didn't hear anything, Émilie decided to investigate. Surely, she would find Scarlet in there and all would be fine. Taking a deep breath, she pulled open the door.

"Scarlet!" she called. "I'm here!" No response. Her words echoed through the house back at her.

She looked around at her surroundings. It was empty but for what looked to be an out-of-place stage in the center, and everything was covered in grime. More dust motes floated through the air. She noted that it was much larger and emptier than its outer appearance.

Sitting on the edge of the platform were three portscreens. Odd, Émilie thought. She wandered around the room over to the row of devices. This felt like a test.

She clicked one open and tried to figure out who owned it, but the whole thing was empty. The home screen was still the default. The settings were the way it had originally been, with no sign of changes. The data usage showed that none of the storage had been used. There were no contacts, no apps, no pictures, no trace of the person who had owned it. It was a brand new portscreen.

She tried the next one, but there was a passcode, and no matter what she tried, Émilie couldn't open it. She could see a picture of chains as the home screen. Weird. This one was probably full of stuff, but it was locked tight.

Now, the final portscreen. It asked for a word passcode. She typed "password," and it actually worked. Émilie resisted the urge to laugh out loud. She scrolled through the contacts. They were all people she didn't know. She saw generic French names like "Emma," "Louis," "Jade," or "Pierre." Desperately, she scrolled through more, suddenly feeling a bout of panic. Hadn't Scarlet mentioned an abandoned house nearby, like a fight club or something?

This couldn't be Scarlet's house. She knew it for a fact. And why had she even picked up the phones, anyway? This had been one whole bad decision from the start, when she first decided to walk to Scarlet's. She had to leave.

Before she could, a crowd of people- if you could call them that- pushed through the same doors she had entered through. They were yelling and screaming rowdily, and each one had some kind of disfigurement or oddity, like a portscreen in the arm or teeth on a scalp. And they were all coming towards her.


	2. Escape

"She tasted the smallest bowl, which belonged to the Little Bear, and it was just right, and she ate it all."

Émilie heard someone yell, "She's found the portscreens!" as another declared, "Get her out! She found us without his approval!"

As any person, guilty or innocent, would do in that situation, Émilie ran. She got as far as the back door before they caught up, and tackled her to the ground. An arm pushed down on her throat.

"Why is someone like you here? And why were you not at the meeting place?" the one holding her growled.

Past the white spots obscuring her vision, Émilie could see that he had fur all over his body and an animalistic snout. She writhed in panic for a moment, thinking that it was one of Levana's hybrid soldiers before she realized that those weren't supposed to be a threat anymore. This man resembled more a bear, though it looked like he had used some kind of Lunar technology. While she had thrashed before, now she couldn't move in terror. What was he doing here? What were all of these people doing here?

She thought of all her assets in this situation and found only one. Attempting to smile prettily as well as she could in her condition, Émilie gestured toward her neck. She was partially released. "Apologies, Mr…. Um- Mr. Bear. I-I was lost looking for my friend's farm," she croaked as sweetly as possible in her current predicament. She figured there was no reason to lie.

The bear-man moved back a little. "Wolf?" he growled.

"You know him?" she asked desperately, hoping for a way out.

"Yeah, I know him," he sneered, glaring at Émilie. "His girlfriend called the police on us one time, right after he became the first one ever to beat me in a match. Sound familiar?"

Émilie shook her head vigorously, trembling with fear. Nothing she was trying was working, but this was her last opening. He had shifted away a little bit, listening to Émilie.

She took her chance. Émilie dove between Mr. Bear's legs and ran as fast as she could towards the exit, not bothering to look back. She knew that they were following her, and they were gaining on her quickly. She put on one last boost of speed, using the last of her energy. She was impossibly drained by all this excitement.

To her astonishment, she made it outside. She slammed the door behind her just in time and staggered to a small gathering of bushes nearby as the fighters and spectators pounded on the door behind her. As she crumpled to the ground and her lids slid shut, she briefly wondered whether they would maim her or strangle her and dump her in the woods once they found her in the bushes. Whatever the case, she could do no more now but faint into a dreamless sleep, shaken by the events of the day.

Émilie awoke to a stinging in her cheek and a burning in her throat- probably from being choked. Had she been slapped, as well? She brought a hand to her cheek and groggily looked up to see flaming red curls haloed by the sun. _Scarlet_, she thought. She barely had time for her next thought, and not nearly enough to complain about her rude awakening, before her friend started shouting incomprehensibly at her and pulling her arm. Émilie scowled and stood up at Scar's incessant tugging.

She nearly fell from the way her head was spinning, but with a steadying arm around Scarlet, the pair managed to stumble out of the shrubs and onto an overgrown path. Behind them, a warped iron door rattled and shook. Just like that, everything came rushing back. Émilie tugged frantically on Scarlet's red hoodie, leaving mud from the ground on the bright vermilion.

Scarlet looked over with a scowl. "You just had to wipe mud on me, huh Ém? C'mon, we need to get away from here. You shouldn't come to the Morel farm. Do you have your basket?"

Émilie looked up at Scarlet desperately, wiping away an errant tear. "Scar, they're doing something in there! They had these phones, and altered their bodies in horrible ways," she cried.

"I know," Scarlet said.

It was all Émilie could do not to recoil, though she probably would've tripped on a tree root or something if she had let go of Scarlet. "Why didn't you do something? Oh, for all the stars. You have the rulers of the Eastern Commonwealth on your side!"

Scarlet glared right back at her. "I did, Ém! I called Iko for you, and she's on her way with Kinney. If I had known that they were bringing other people into this, then I would've done it earlier. Otherwise, there's nothing we can convict them for. They won't admit to the fights. Just be grateful I got to you in time."

Émilie hung her head in shame, just in time for Scarlet to walk her into a tree.

"Oops," Scarlet said nonchalantly. Though Émilie didn't doubt that it had been an accident, her friend didn't sound exactly sorry either.

"You're right, Scar. I'm sorry. I was scared and angry. Anyway, I should've known you would never pass up a chance to kick butt. You are Scarlet Benoit-Kesley, after all." Émilie smirked at her friend. Even Scarlet herself couldn't deny that she did tend to dive headfirst into trouble quite often. She was not one to run away scared.

Reaching a clearing, Émilie looked around and was beyond relieved to find that she recognized the area as Scarlet's farm.

However, she was less excited to see the face of her boss staring at her from the hover runway.

"Aces," Émilie whispered.

Scarlet laughed. "You sound like Thorne."

Gilles looked angry, though Émilie couldn't possibly imagine why. She was on an errand for him, after all!

Though, she had taken a much longer time than she had anticipated. And, as Émilie now recalled, she had been chatting with the other waitresses instead of working earlier this morning… Now that she thought about it, Émilie's boss had a lot of good reason for being angry at her. She only hoped that she wouldn't get fired for this. It was hardly Émilie's fault that she had gotten lost and attacked! Well, unless picking flowers counted. Today was not her day.

Émilie waved nervously at Gilles, her other arm still looped over Scarlet's neck and her hair spilling out from her bun. He glared back.

"Émilie, care to explain what you were doing for three hours at the Morel farm instead of at the Benoit farm like you were supposed to be?"

"I got lost. I'm sorry, Gilles. It won't happen again, I swear on all the stars."

"Fine," he grumbled in response. "Just get those deliveries in order so we can leave." He stalked off to the hover.

Émilie silently thanked her boss, though she kept up a cool facade just to spite him. At least she wouldn't have to be walking back after this whole ordeal.

Inside the house, Wolf was stacking up piles of produce for Émilie to put in her huge basket that had miraculously survived the day. He waved politely, and Émilie couldn't help but remark that despite his lupine additions, he was still quite handsome.

Back when he had first appeared at the Rieux Tavern, she had even had a crush on him, but so much had changed since then. A revolution, for one. But there had also been Scarlet and Wolf getting married, and their friends Cinder and Kai after that, also known as the rulers of the Eastern Commonwealth, Selene and Kaito.

Now, as Scarlet entered the room behind her, his eyes lit up and he immediately went to her side. They were so cute together, it was almost unfair.

Scarlet reassured her that Iko would comm her for intel when she arrived, and Émilie was ready to go.

Émilie would have to get them something for helping her out today. Iko and Kinney, too. She was beyond excited to see the effervescent and stylish android that she had met a few months back. But before she left, she had a question.

"How did Gilles know I was at the Morel farm if he thought I was here?"

Scarlet shrugged. "I suspect that he has a tracker in your basket. He worries, y'know, especially with your former gossiping tendencies. Rightfully so, based on your little escapade today."

Scarlet really did have an awfully frightening evil eye, but Émilie hardly noticed it; she couldn't help but seethe over what Gilles had done. On top of that awful fighting ring, Émilie would now have to worry about being tracked. No more detours to visit that little farm boy she liked, then. Oh well. She would have to get back at Gilles somehow.

With that, Émilie hugged Scar goodbye and went out to the hover with the goods, ready to clock into her shift at the bar. It was going to be a long night.


End file.
